Legal & Regulation

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (Commission) has issued an order granting a request from ICE Clear Europe Limited (ICE Clear Europe), a Commission-registered derivatives clearing organisation, for an order pursuant to Section 4d(a) and (b) of the Commodity Exchange Act.
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As of 1 March 2015, it has become mandatory for fund managers distributing their products in Switzerland to commission a Swiss legal representative and paying agent. Regulatory compliance is the name of the game when it comes to the service provided by UBS.
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The sands of time are running out for hedge fund managers wishing to continue distributing their funds to Swiss investors. As of 1 March 2015, any foreign hedge fund looking to raise assets in Switzerland from qualified investors will be required to appoint a Swiss legal representative and paying agent.
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Hedge fund managers have two options when looking to bring a regulated fund product to Europe. The first is to go the UCITS route, the second is to establish an AIF, under the much more recent AIFM Directive, which is a far less trodden path than the UCITS regime.
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Luxembourg-based Fuchs Asset Management is not your typical AIFM provider. Its heritage is firmly rooted in wealth management. Having now grown into a team exceeding 100 people, it took the decision to diversify its offering and set up an AIFMD-compliant management company, receiving its license from the CSSF last June.
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“I was in Chicago recently. A German pension fund said they had a USD500m allocation in a Chicago-based fund. They wanted to know that they could continue having a relationship with the manager and they said that having the depositary guarantee (under AIFMD) was important to their end investors. They told the manager that they wanted to put their USD500m allocation into an EU-regulated fund.
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The AIFM Directive may not be universally welcome but with greater focus being applied to compliance and operational risk oversight within the fund management industry, it is at least ensuring a new breed of higher quality fund manager; which for investors is good news.
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Last May, MS Management Services SA, a Luxembourg-based subsidiary of the Maitland group, received authorisation from the CSSF to act as a third-party AIFM to alternative investment funds. At the same time, it established its own umbrella fund platform, MS SICAV SIF, to support managers wishing to fast track the process of launching an AIFMD-compliant fund in Europe.
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Two exchanges formerly owned by Direct Edge Holdings and since acquired by BATS Global Markets are to pay a USD14 million penalty to settle SEC charges that their rules failed to accurately describe the order types being used on the exchanges.
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The Annex IV report under AIFMD contains 38 specific questions for the AIFM and over 300 questions for each AIF being passported across the EU. To say that it is a complex beast is an understatement.
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By Dawn Howe (pictured) and Michael Padarin, Walkers – From the point of view of a Cayman Islands investment funds lawyer it seems as if FATCA dawned on most clients around January 2014, even though it's been gestating for a number of years. The wake up call was usually a GIIN request from the client's prime broker, resulting in a scramble to get up to speed and implement a FATCA compliance program within their fund complex.
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There is a compliance shortfall among alternative investment funds (AIFs) on the eve of the deadline for Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD) authorisation, according to research by BNY Mellon.
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The Bahamas is taking steps to raise its profile as an attractive funds centre, continuing to build out the popular SMART Fund model template to provide a range of solutions for investment managers, plus its new ICON structure designed to appeal specifically to Brazilian investment managers and advisers.... »

In an extract from the 2015 Preqin Investor Outlook: Alternative Assets H1 2015, results of a survey conducted in Q4 2014 reveal which strategies and regions will be targeted by private equity investors this year.
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This Special Report unveils the ways in which State Street Global Markets' Fund Connect ETF platform is bringing new levels of efficiency to the the ETF marketplace, and includes expert comment from the perspective of an AP.... »

Work patterns in the alternative investments space have seen a significant shift over the years —from working in the office on a computer, to collaborating remotely via mobile applications and bring your own devices (BYOD). To remain competitive, an enormous amount of data must be shared on-the-go to facilitate investment decisions, but with minimal IT oversight, this trend towards mobile could open the door for increased risk of information leakage.
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